We get asked fairly often "So what's the deal with the hand symbol and the name 'Ikon'?"

We also love a good "origin story" so sit back and read on!

David's background as well as art is in Anthropology. When the time came to establish a business name for the photography business, we wanted to incorporate something that spoke to that background/expertise.

One of David's first and favorite cameras was a Zeiss Ikon Super BC 35mm film camera.

The Zeiss Ikon Super BC was first produced in the 1950's and had some of the finest optics and advanced features for a film camera of it's day.

Wanting to incorporate something along the lines of "iconography" or "icons" from his Anthropology days, we decided at "Ikon" for a name. However, there were already a host of "Ikon/Ikonography/Ikonic/Ikonos/Photos/Photography/Studios" out there in the business world. In order to host a unique name, we formed "Ikon Photographs LLC" in 2011.

What's all this "Hand Jive"?

In keeping with Anthropology mindset, we needed a "logo/brand"... Honestly, cameras, lenses, apertures and all that are WAY overdone in our opinion so we went with what is literally the oldest human-made image; the human hand.

A human hand stencil painting from Chauvet Cave in Southern France is believed to be over 35,000 years old.

It was this ancient image that served as the model for Ikon Photographs' Hand Logo.

We decided to keep a 35mm film and film cartridge as part of our design/logo as an homage to our roots in the traditional photographic medium.

You will find the "Ikon Hand" on all our work somewhere. Whether it's a contract that you're signing, a website you're looking at, or even a custom designed USB that you're getting delivered as one of our finished media product/packages. It's bold. It makes a statement. It's an "ikonic image".